


When We Get Out Of Hell

by seibelsays



Category: Captain America (Comics), Invaders (Marvel), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24428398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seibelsays/pseuds/seibelsays
Summary: Bucky promised his friends that when the war was over, they would celebrate.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020





	When We Get Out Of Hell

**Author's Note:**

> For my Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020 card, prompt Canon: Earth-616
> 
> I pulled a bunch of different storylines together here, so for reference:  
> Then - takes place during the flashback at the end of Invaders (2019) #6  
> Now - takes place in the aftermath of Invaders (2019) #12 and Winter Soldier (2019) #5  
> Bucky's journal entries are from Avengers/Invaders (2008)

_Then._

“Hello boys. Mind if a ray of sunshine joins you?” Bucky asked with a grin, approaching the duo watching the sunset.

“Hey Bucky,” Jim said. “Pull up some ground.”

“What has you all so glum in the face of this lovely sunset, huh?” Bucky asked, as he fell into a spot next to Namor. 

“Just talking about that last mission.”

“Ah.” Bucky nodded. It had been rough - they’d been lucky to escape alive and relatively unscathed. While that wasn’t unusual, it was still trying, especially when there didn’t seem to be an end to this latest push anywhere in sight.

Lucky for everyone, Bucky was a resourceful kind of guy.

He pulled his chocolate ration out of his jacket pocket and wiggled it in Jim’s eyeline. “Lookie what just arrived. Happy to share with you fine fellas, if you’re so inclined.”

“Is your life so uncomplicated that a chocolate bar will cure what ails you?” Namor asked, with the raise of an eyebrow.

Bucky shrugged. “I figure it’ll do - at least until I get that date with Rita Hayworth.”

Jim rolled his eyes with a smile. “Oh where have I heard that before?”

“From him,” Namor grumbled. “At every opportunity.”

Jim chuckled. “Bucky Barnes and Rita Hayworth. That would be something, for sure.”

Bucky slung an arm around Jim’s neck. “We’re _Invaders_. There’s nothin’ we can’t do when we’re together. And once we win this war, we’re going to have it made!”

“We have to survive this war first, Bucky,” Namor reminded him.

“Weren’t you the one going on about awing the Nazis with our power not that long ago?” Bucky said, the smirk on his face amplifying the smirk in his voice.

“You have a lot to learn, Barnes,” Namor replied.

“All right, all right. Fine. Tell you what.” He held up the chocolate bar. “I’m going to stash this away, somewhere nice and safe. And not all that long from now? When we win this thing and are on our way back out of hell? Well. I’ll take this out of hiding and we’ll split it to celebrate. Sound good?”

Jim looked back out at the sunset. “Sounds real nice, Bucky,” he said. “Real nice.”

“Something to look forward to,” Namor murmured.

* * *

_“DROP OFF, BUCKY! LET GO!”_

* * *

Movement inside the tent caught Namor’s attention and he stepped inside, the rain outside muting the sound of his entrance so much that the others inside didn’t notice him come in.

Toro was digging through a bag while Jim looked on, his face inscrutable. Toro dropped the bag to the ground, a book in his hand. He flipped it open.

“Hey Jim, did you know Buck was keeping a journal?” He flipped a few pages. “All the stuff we’ve done, he wrote it all down.”

“Maybe now isn’t the time to be looking through that,” Jim cautioned.

“ _After all_ ,” Toro read from the journal, ignoring Jim’s warning, “ _hope is in things unseen. Isn’t that what Cap always says?_ ” Toro paused. “Damn optimist.” He flipped a few more pages and then let out a crow of victory! 

“Oh ho! Look what I found. Looks like Barnes had a stash.” Toro held up the chocolate bar that had been hidden somewhere in the back pages of the journal.

“You called yourself his friend!” Namor yelled from the entry, startling Jim and Toro. “He hasn’t been dead but a day and you’re already picking over his things like an isopod!” Namor rounded on them and grabbed at the journal, but Jim stepped between Toro and the grieving Atlantean. “You humans - you do nothing but take and _take **and take**_!”

Jim winced, but spoke in as calm a voice as he could manage. “Namor, look -”

“What good is any of this gonna do him now, huh?” Toro yelled back, leaning around Jim so he could see Namor clearly. “He _was_ my friend. And if I’ve learned anything from him, anything from his death…” One or two flames flickered from his fingertips as he paused, breathing heavily. When he spoke again, his voice was much quieter. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that Bucky should have eaten his damn chocolate when he had the chance.”

* * *

_Now._

_No matter how much we fear that we’re going to break our mothers’ hearts by dying with dirty underwear on, we want to prove it’s not true. That we are not the people we fear we are, deep down._

“Jesus, I was a pretentious shit as a kid,” Bucky muttered, flipping the old journal closed as he stuffed it back in the box. He set the lid on it so he could move it into the closet when a knock at the door made him pause.

He slowly made his way towards the entry, picking up Alpine and gently shushing his plaintive meowing on the way. One peek through the window and - 

Well, this was a surprise.

“Jim! Toro! What are you guys doing here?” he asked happily, the grin spreading across his face as he opened the door to greet his old friends.

“Well, we’d heard you’d finally settled down a bit. Gotten yourself a real nice place out here, and we wanted to swing by and see you,” Jim said. 

“Well, it’s a nice surprise. It’s good to see you both. Come on in.” Bucky waved them inside, walking them through the entry down the hall and into the kitchen.

“It’s a nice day out, I’ll set you boys up in the yard and grab some drinks,” he said, setting Alpine down and shooing her into the yard to keep his friends company while he put together a tray. 

“Don’t trouble yourself, Buck,” Jim replied.

“I’ll take a drink, if you’re offering,” Toro said.

Bucky laughed. “Go on out, it’s no trouble at all.”

He turned into the kitchen and grabbed the lemonade out of the refrigerator, then filled a few glasses with ice and balanced it all on a tray. He carefully made his way outside, where his friends were waiting patiently, having moved chairs into the shade of the big oak tree in the backyard to watch Alpine scamper in the sun.

“Thank you, Buck,” Jim said, reaching for the tray so Bucky could sit down and join them. “You’ve got a nice set up out here.”

“Indiana’s a strange place to settle though. I’d have thought you’d go back to New York,” Toro said, squinting a little into the sunshine as he looked around the yard.

“New York is great,” Bucky agreed. “But Shelbyville is home.” He took a long sip of his lemonade as he regarded his friends. “So,” he said, setting his glass down into the grass, “what brings you all the way out here?”

Jim and Toro exchanged a glance.

“Well that look never bodes well,” Bucky laughed, before sobering “Something wrong? Is it Namor?”

Toro scowled slightly at the mention as Jim shook his head.

“No, not Namor,” Jim said.

“Anyone heard from him?” Bucky asked.

“Nope,” Toro replied. “Doubt we will. Not anytime soon, anyway.”

Bucky sighed. “Well. He’s...got a lot going on, I guess.” It was a lame answer. Namor had been out of his mind just a few weeks ago, almost starting a war against the surface world. It had taken everything they had to stop him, to try to put things right. Bucky had been shot, point blank, by someone who had been working for the man controlling Namor. And while Bucky could absolutely relate to doing terrible things while not in control of your actions, it was still going to take a monumental effort. There were entire towns along the coast that would probably never be the same.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Toro muttered.

Jim gave Toro a warning look, then looked back to Bucky. “We’ll see Namor again. When he’s ready.”

Bucky nodded. “So, if not Namor - why the trip? Not that I don’t appreciate it, but I doubt you’d come all this way just for a social call.”

Jim grinned. “Tony said the town was nice.”

“Tony came to fix my arm, then stayed for fireworks. Of course he liked it.”

Jim laughed. “Very true.” He paused, clearly choosing his next words carefully. “Tony told me about what happened. With RJ.”

Bucky stilled. “Did he.” 

Jim nodded. “How are you doing?”

Bucky sighed. He’d be doing better if his friends didn’t spill his business all over Avengers Mountain, or wherever it was that superheroes did their book club these days.

He tried for a smile. “HYDRA stole a kid and trained him to kill, then stuck him in my old uniform and sent him to kill me. How do you think I’m doing?”

Toro frowned. “I thought you got RJ out, though?”

Bucky nodded. “I did. But then everything went to hell. My fault.”

“Where’s RJ now?” Jim asked. Bucky appreciated that he didn’t attempt any platitudes or false sincerity about it not being Bucky’s fault. Because it absolutely was.

He picked up his lemonade and took a sip, trying for casual. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He was still looking, though. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to stop looking.

“Want any help?” Toro asked.

Bucky frowned. “Help with what?” 

“Finding him,” Toro said. “Comeon, Buck. I know you. You’re going to keep looking for that kid until either you find him or he gets so annoyed with you chasing him that he finds you.”

It was a nice offer. A tempting offer. 

But Bucky owed a debt. One that he was unlikely to ever be capable of repaying. That wasn’t going to stop him from trying.

“What was it you always used to say back in the day?” Jim said, a smile forming. “We’re Invaders.”

“There’s nothing we can’t do when we’re together,” Toro grinned.

“Did you two practice that?” Bucky said, deflecting from the flare of hope that burned in his chest. 

“Maybe,” Jim said. “Doesn’t make it any less true.”

“Alright then,” Bucky murmured, giving in. “We’ll start tomorrow. Tonight, I don’t have enough food in this house, so we’re going to have to go out for dinner.”

“Sounds good to me,” Toro said. 

The three men settled into comfortable silence, watching the birds play in the breeze as the leaves rustled overhead.

“Hey Buck,” Toro said quietly, after the sun had moved more than a little bit across the sky. 

“Yeah?”

“Did you make it out of hell yet?”

Bucky paused, considering the question. Had he? He was home from the war, away from the clutches of the Russians and the Red Room. Steve had restored his memories - a blessing and a curse - and he was working every day to undo a microcosm of the damage he had wrought. 

It was hard work. And no matter how hard he tried, it always felt like one step forward and two steps back.

But right now, he had the company of friends in the shade of a big oak tree as they watched Alpine chase bugs in the backyard. As if on cue, Alpine turned and trotted over to him, jumping into his lap with a nuzzle and a purr, settling down to watch the sunset with them.

Right now, anything he does is because he chooses to do it. And that means it can’t be hell.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I think I have.”

“I’m glad,” Jim replied. 

“Me too,” Toro said. “Because that means, we can split this.” He grabbed his jacket off the ground and dug around in a pocket, before pulling out a chocolate bar. He handed it to Bucky.

“Please tell me this _isn’t_ the same bar from 1945,” Bucky joked.

“No, he definitely already ate that one,” Jim said.

“Namor was so mad,” Toro added, fondly. His smile faltered a little at the mention of their wayward friend.

“Tell you what,” Bucky said, slowly picking at the wrapper. The scent of rich chocolate wafted through the air and filled Bucky’s nose, making his mouth water just a little. He’d never quite grown out of his sweet tooth. “We’ll split this one now. For me. And when we’re out tonight for dinner we’ll get another one and save it. So we’ll have one to celebrate with when Namor is out of hell.”

Jim looked back out at the sunset. “Sounds real nice, Bucky,” he said. “Real nice.”

Bucky split the bar into three, handing each man a piece. “Alright then.” He paused, trying to think of an appropriate toast. “Something to look forward to,” he said, finally.

Jim nodded and Toro smiled as he bit into his chocolate.

“Something to look forward to,” Bucky murmured again to himself, then took a bite of his own chocolate. And smiled.


End file.
